January 6 - Australia: Cairns

Just another run:  Jon's run #40

Well, no random ruminations...really just wondering if I'm going to be able to get up at 4:15 every morning to go for a run.  I'm really thinking that I'll run on the days that we work and will save my sleeping in for our days off so I can really sleep in.  Not much to say about the run...went in and around downtown Cairns, the bustling town that it is.  Basically, think of a town about the same size as Charlottesville, VA, but with tourism as its main industry.  The people in small town are nice--everyone says hi when you pass them, unlike in NY or even Hong Kong or Singapore.

The boat was packed today, and they needed another English-speaking guide.  For whatever reason, Horsey (Australia for "Horst") knighted me for the golden opportunity.  Very exciting!  I had a group of 6 people to guide.

Dive #1: Jorgie's Patches

Depth: 19.2 meters

Bottom Time: 40 minutes

Visibility: 15 meters

Jorgie's Patches is a small reef on the way out to Norman/Saxon/Hastings.  We never go to it because it's not well protected from the elements and so the current is often quite strong.  For whatever reason, Matty (skipper) and Horst (dive supervisor) decided to give it a go today.  It really was a lovely reef.  We saw lots of beautiful fish and some gorgeous coral.  There was a huge potato cod on part of the reef as well.

Dive #2: Hastings Reef - Angel's Bommie

Depth: 10.9 meters

Bottom Time: 52 minutes

Visibility: 10 meters

Visibility wasn't so good, especially around the backside of the bommie.  But we cruised around the entire bommie until we got to the plateau of coral.  This is where I unfortunately got turned around.  It wasn't any big deal, but we did come up a little further from the boat than I had planned.  Horst came out with the dinghy to pick us up, none of my divers wanted the lift.  They all wanted to snorkel back!  

Air Conservation 

The funny thing about both of the above dives is that my divers seemed to do VERY well on air.  And I was doing very poorly.  In fact, most of them were keeping pace with me almost exactly.  I was both impressed with these new divers (they each had 7 dives or less under their belts) and disappointed with myself.  I've worked so hard to be an efficient air-conserver, but I started to wonder if my conservation techniques fly out the window when I'm guiding divers.

I didn't realize what happened until I disassembled my gear after the second dive.  Before we landed at the first dive site, I'd forgotten to set up my gear.  In a rush, I'd grabbed the first spare kit I could find, even though it was a small BCD.  It completely slipped my mind that we put the small BCDs with the small air tanks.  So I was diving on one of the smallest tanks we have on the boat!  No wonder my air was going so quickly! 

And considering I was keeping up with divers on large tanks, my breathing is actually quite good.  Whew!